Tornado to our west. We (blue circle) are just east of the velocity couplet (red/yellow pair)

After several days of hunting, we caught a storm with a tornado. I took it as a good omen when we crossed paths with the TWIRL Project armada in North Platte. (photos coming here soon). We alos bumped into Reed Timmer while we were parked during the tornado.

I could not see it with the naked eye, and I was shooting with my GoPro cameras (neither of which has a viewing screen, to save on battery life). My Canon video camera has a ‘stuck’ zoom control, so it is basically useless for the rest of this trip, unless I get time and resources to repair it somehow. (Not likely I’ll have either).

I think at least one GoPro captured the nearby lightning strikes that froze everybody in their tracks. I’ll know once I copy the video to my external hard drive for review.

19 May 2016 – A positioning day. We move north, in preparation for the weekend’s storms. We stop at the Guadalupe Peak overlook, Carlsbad,NM, and Roswell,NM. Many aliens seen.

(photos to be added later)

We end at Raton,NM, just south of the Colorado-New Mexico border.

20 May 2016 – We continue north on a second positioning day. We end up in Limon,CO, after a photo stop at an abandoned house, one of Bill Reid’s favorite activities on a down day.

21 May 2016 – Win e had a difficult choice: western Kansas, where storms would fire early and likely be a messy, disorganized cluster OR go for a later show near Chugwater, WY.
We chose the latter and busted bigtime. Such is life.

22 May 2016 – We will likely be in central Nebraska, only a short distance from our hotel.

Our group arrived at 1 a.m. at our hotel last night, so no update! We also spent the previous two nights in motels WITHOUT INTERNET and very sparse cell phone coverage. We were beyond ‘the middle of nowhere’ (perhaps a bit left of center).

Quick summaries:

16May2016: Oklahoma City, OK – Ozona, TX

We chased in the OK and TX panhandles, catching 2 tornado warned storms. An additional storm beyond our reach produced a tornado, while our storms were undercut by cool air (and, thus, could not produce). We did photograph some amazing structure.

More photos to come

17May2016: Plainview,TX – Ozona,TX

We chased after several promising storms, but only saw a brief, weak funnel spin up. One law enforcement-based tornado (“sheriffnado”) report was all the day yielded, nationally. We had encounters with pea- and nickel-sized hail (and some roadway flooding) around Big Lake, TX, but that’s all. Photos and video coming soon.

18May2016: Ozona,TX-Presidio,TX-Van Horn,TX

We headed from Ozona, TX toward Presidio, TX (only a mile from the US-Mexican border), It took us several hours to wind our way through rugged Pinto Canyon, creating our journey around 5800 feet above sea level.

Many beautiful canyon photos will be added here once I have time and connectivity to do the job.

Several well-organized supercells persisted on the Mexican side, and when they moved into Texas they pelted us with quarter-sized (and slightly larger 1.25-inch) hail. I will post hail photos and video as soon as I’m able.

1:20 pm– Dwight, Illinois – along Interstate 55 south at Illinois 17, exit 217. Off to my west, I see clouds, probably a building cumulus field. I’m cruising along at 75 miles an hour, but there are enough people who want to go 85 miles an hour that I’m feeling a little crowded. Off to my east, dual rotor copter (perhaps military?) Is slowly moving northward, paralleling the interstate.

1:57 pm – Passing Chenoa, Illinois, roughly halfway between Chicago and spring. Starting to hear rumbles of dissatisfaction from my tummy. Even though the van’s tank is still above half full. I think my stomach is much less than half full. *insert gurgling noise*

2:45pm – Stopped at pilot fuel center in Bloomington Illinois. Main odometer reads 61089. Trip odometer 525.4 miles (probably the distance since two fillups ago). About 125 miles into my trip now.

A fFew minutes down the road I had to make a sudden stop and laptop, Wi-Fi hotspot, console for the Vantage you always flying. Boy, was I pissed off!! No damage, except my nervous system. My current laptop has its center of gravity in a very different place than . than it’s predecessor, so I will have to adjust how are secure it to keep it from flying around.

3:17 PM – I’m south of Bloomington, Illinois. In a construction zone. Almost sent all my gear flying again. It seems people here either drive 85 miles an hour or 5 miles an hour and nothing in between. Yoga thing that’s 85 is the temperature inside the van. The sun is really beating down now, in the dark dashboard in the pool three are really heating thing up. Turned on air conditioning in the car for my first time this year. If he is terrific. To add to the confusion we had a left-wing close for about 10 feet, and now we have a right lane closed just after the left lane is open. I have no idea with the road crews are trying to do, but traffic is moving along at 10 miles an hour. Thank you, road gang! *snerk*

3:30 PM – I finally emerged from the construction zone around exit 133 (Wink). For about 12 miles I was in a construction zone in a white dust storm at the same time.

4:22 PM – I just passed 90th Meridian sign, a quarter of the way around the world from my buddy, Owen. I hardly ever think about how big out planet is. I look at the sky at night and think about how small our world is.

4:37 PM – The western sky is now getting shades of purple in it. I have entered the eastern third of the severe thunderstorm watch that extends southwest to eastern Kansas. Missouri(I have noticed that the voice recognition is doing very poorly now, due to environmental noise in the van.) One moment your every word perfectly, another moment it will record my words gibberish. I also have noticed that my GPS unit is not recognized by three, so I cannot see my physician on the GR level III great artist radar display. I will have to park for compatible software to decode the form for proprietary GPS strings.

4: 57 PM – The temperature in the van is down to about 76°F, thanks to alittle air-conditioning and abundant cloud cover. Above the cliffs on each side of the roadway, there are hawks (with a 2 foot wingspan each) hunting for dinner. Speaking of dinner, it must be around suppertime, as I have the road pretty much to myself. Taking a look the radar, it’s like most of the really juicy storms are over in North East Kansas, too far away for me to catch before dark. With a little walk, I might get a good lightning show the storms over Northeast Missouri, which I’m approaching now. I should cross the Mrs. Mississippi River within the next half hour

5:12 PM – About to cross the Mississippi River. The last sign said it was 9 miles to Hannibal, and I just reached by I-72/US-36 split. It also just started raining sky is a deeper will color to my Northwest, But nothing severe is imminent.

??:?? PM – I grab a few shots of the fading storms to my northwest.

??:?? PM – I think God is looking for me! I see his flashlight shining down on the road ahead of me!

??:?? PM: Stopped in Macon, Missouri, selecting The Apple Basket [Restaurant] for dinner. I chatted with the local folks. The main topic was The Andy Griffith Show and Mayberry, as the walls of the place has Mayberry posters all over the walls. I order the steak, which comes with the well-prepared 10-item salad bar, I side of veggies (I chose the pickled beets — I love ’em!), and a beverage (water for me).
The steak is a thin-cut steak, but thoroughly enjoyable. YUM!

11:01 PM – Arrived in Kearney, MO, after using the Orbitz hotel site to find the best price on a room. Gotta rack up those Orbucks! (LOL). Once I’m in bed, I run through the evening buzz list. While moving the bags to the room earlier, I realized that the metal plate that I stick the antennas to (when they’re inside) the van is missing. The last place I remember seeing it was at work. It is conceivable I left it on the ground i.e. in the parking lot at work. I will have to send an email to the operation center to see if someone can go out there and look. How embarrassing!

I will have to find some kind of substitute at Home Depot nearby. My first Saturday morning errand for tomorrow, perhaps.

All the bags are packed, and all but one of them are in the van, as I need some things out of that bag in the morning.

Here is a look at the evening checklist:

All things are in good order except I cannot find my sunglasses. So, big deal! I will buy a new pair. I have probably just missed placed them somewhere around the house. Nothing to worry about.
I am trying to get a good nights sleep, as I have an early start on my workday.

It also looks like I might see some storms sometime tomorrow if I can get an early start from work (around noon, let’s say).

Depending upon what the models project in the morning, I may be taking off from Chicago, passing through Western Illinois, and shooting across the top tier of Missouri on US 36, perhaps sending up someplace like Kansas City or Wichita for the evening.

I will refine my target for the day based on my departure time and the expected time storms will go up.

Some of you have chased with me before and some of you haven’t met Gadget Girl before, so here’s a bit about me.

I am a former polar explorer (3 years contracting for the U.S. Antarctic Program (USAP)), a career computer technologist, and — Surprise! — a storm chaser. I’ve been chasing in several forms now for 20 years: I go with tour groups, chase with a few local teams, and chase solo. I’ve seen about 3 dozen tornadoes and uncounted severe storms in that time. I still have plenty to learn, but I know enough to keep myself safe chasing and doing storm spotting for my local emergency management agency.

I’ve chased with Tempest Tours since 2002 (though I’ve missed a few seasons, due to job or economic constraints). If my count is correct, my 2016 trip will be my 14th chase with Tempest. I guess you become a regular after spending over 100 days with these folks. You may find other excellent tour companies, but none better! If I had all the money I could ask for, I’d still choose Martin Lisius and Bill Reid to guide me ‘under the thunder.’ (Yes, I use that expression a lot!) I would have to say that about 2/3 of the tornadoes I’ve seen in my life were with Tempest.

I tend to favor chasing in May, since we cover a broad range of the central and southern plains during a ten-day stint. I’ve found that this makes for better ‘blue sky’ days, as well as lots of target choices when the weather is active.

If you were to ask those who’ve chased with me before, they’d probably tell you I carry a lot of ‘toys’ and invariably am the unofficial IT helper for the tour. If your technology gets messed up, please feel free to ask me for help. I do not know every thing about every gadget or software package, but I give good guidance, tend to be generous with my time, and derive great satisfaction from helping others. (I also speak a little Spanish, should the need arise; I spent a lot of time translating for one guest a few years back.)

Also, those of you who know me will note that I’ve dropped about 80 pounds since last year. This is partially due to a (usually) strict low-carbohydrate diet, better commitment to exercise than I’ve had in years past, and the mysteries of modern medicine. You’ll see me eating a lot of salads, but trust me, I’m really enjoying myself.